1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiautomatic operating device for a microchip having at least one micro-channel capable of making the performance of biochemical reaction experiments using the microchip easier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional micro-channels and microchips including chambers in which a biochemical reaction can occur are well known. An example of a microchip is a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) chip in which a micro-channel and a reaction chamber are formed. In conventional microchips, injection equipment such as a pipette is used to inject reaction reagents directly into a reagent inlet of the microchip. However, when a multi-channel PCR chip having a plurality of reaction chambers is used, such a manual operation can cause a large error due to confusing channels of the PCR or shaking of the hands.
In addition, the microchip must be sealed after a PCR reagent is injected so that the PCR reagent is not lost by, for example, evaporation while a PCR is performed. An example of a conventional method of sealing the microchip is adhering an optical tape to the reagent inlet and outlet of the PCR chip. In this case, a conventional reaction experiment using the microchip is inconvenient since the PCR reagent must be manually injected and the reagent inlet and outlet sealed using a separately prepared sealing material such as tape.
Therefore, a semiautomatic operating device for a microchip in which a reaction solution can be simply and accurately injected and a reagent inlet and outlet can be easily sealed after injecting the reaction solution by a simple manipulation of the device regardless of the level of the skill of a user is required.